New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox: Luis Gil vs. Dylan Cease

The Yankees are back in action tonight in Chicago, as they square off with the defending AL Central champion White Sox for the first time this year to begin a four-game set. Chicago is trailing Minnesota early on, which is a bit of a surprise since the White Sox were the overwhelming division favorite. It’s a good ballclub though, so expect Chicago to be in the playoff mix all year long.

Taking the mound for the Yankees is a new face in the rotation for 2022: Luis Gil. The rainouts last weekend pressed the team to use a sixth starter for tonight since otherwise, one of Gerrit Cole or Jordan Montgomery would be pitching on three days’ rest, and that’s not happening in May. So in comes Gil, the most exciting pitching prospect from 2021, though he got lit up in his first four starts for Triple-A Scranton this season. He did fare better last time out with nine strikeouts in five innings of two-run ball, so hopefully that’s the pitcher we’ll see. (Peter had a great preview post to read on what to look for from Gil.)

Right-hander Dylan Cease will pitch for the White Sox, and manager Tony La Russa (that’s still a thing, huh) has to be pretty pleased about that. Cease had a legitimately good 2021, and he’s looked even better through six starts in 2022, posting a 2.38 ERA, 1.97 FIP, and a WHIP of 1.000 on the nose. He began May with a sensational outing against the Angels, fanning 11 batters across 7 shutout innings of 1-hit ball, though he was gone by the sixth against the Red Sox on Saturday.

Gleyber Torres and Isiah Kiner-Falefa will be out of the lineup tonight, as Torres is the Odd Man Out in the infield rotation and the team understandably prefers to use Marwin Gonzalez as the backup shortstop when IKF has a day off. Kyle Higashioka will catch Gil, which makes sense since the late spring training acquisition Jose Trevino never worked with Gil anyway. If both Higgy and Trevino are punchless at the moment, you might as well go with the familiar face to the young pitcher.

Go Yankees, go baseball, and go get started on winning an eighth consecutive series.

How to watch:

Location: Guaranteed Rate Field — Chicago, IL

First pitch: 8:10 p.m. EST

TV broadcast: YES Network, NBCSCH, MLB Network (out-of-market)

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9, WADO 1280

Online stream: MLB.tv

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